In The End
by PhDelicious
Summary: New Series. Post 2.13 Doomsday. CD, Future Fic.351 days out of the year she was content with living the life she’d been left with.
1. In the End

**In The End**  
PhDelicious  
Spoilers: 2x13 "Doomsday"  
Warning: Character Death, Future Fic

**A/N: ** This is my first and probably only attempt at fic for this fandom, but something at the end of "Doomsday" just seemed to nag at me. Thanks to MissAndromache for the beta.

* * *

Mickey dragged his feet across the sand, shuffling to a stop several yards from his destination. There was a certain amount of irony in the fact that his final trip here would be the first time he actually got close. 351 days out of the year she was content with living the life she'd been left with, helping them build a Torchwood for this reality. But she'd insisted on returning every year, even though she knew there was no point. Normally they'd come in the spring, when the sand was still mostly frozen, but the air was breathable.

The first time he'd waited yards away while she stood, tears streaming down her face, in the last place she'd seen him, the Doctor. For five years Mickey had been inching closer, hoping that she would finally allow him close enough to catch her when her body finally collapsed from all the emotion she released. But Rose had shut a part of herself away when the rift in the void had collapsed, severing her from the Doctor and now he was out of chances.

This New Year's Eve the air was bitterly cold in Bad Wolf Bay but he couldn't find it in himself to move the last few steps to the end of his journey. Mickey looked down at the jar in his hands and something pushed him forward the last few paces. He'd always wondered if maybe she'd just chosen a random spot on the beach, but there was a charge in the air. A tingle of invisible fingers running up his spine, stopping him in place. He called out for the Doctor, but there was no answer. No shimmering outline in the air. No whirring vibrations of a landing TARDIS. Not that he'd really expected there to be. Rose had never gotten an answer, why should the Doctor listen to him.

He wanted to rail at fate, to curse the Doctor for taking her away from him. But he'd had her before the Doctor arrived and she'd come back to him afterwards. And they'd managed to be content, if not happy, until the captain-less ship had fallen from the sky.

whowhowho

It had had the same hull design as Jack Harkness' ship and Rose had become obsessed with the idea that it had traversed the void. And of course, if it had done it once it could do it again. She'd taken to sleeping on a cot in her office at Torchwood, for the few hours a week she could be convinced to sleep. In the end, it had been fortunate for all of them that she had; no one else had ever flown a space ship before.

He'd been home asleep when it had happened so all her knew was what had been in the official report by the night shift supervisor. Passages of it still played through his head at night.

"Self-destruct mechanism triggered…abort attempts failed…evacuation ordered. Agent Tyler…detonation…cascade reaction with stored weapons. Insufficient time…ship needed to be launched."

The explosion had been like a sun burning bright in the night sky. Flaming pieces of the ship Rose had managed to pilot away from the tower had scorched rooftops and singed pavement where they fell, but only one life had been lost that Christmas.

whowhowho

The bitter wind whipped around Mickey, pulling him back to the present; the chill was bleeding through his coat and sinking deep into his bones. He could have waited to make this trip or allowed Jackie and Pete to come along, but this was something he'd felt compelled to do alone. He fumbled a little with the lid before tilting the urn to release the ashes it held. He held his breath, but there was no mysterious force pulling the grey flecks together, no shimmering rift in space time opened for them to disappear into, nothing special at all. The last remains of Rose Tyler swirled away across the sand and sea on the winter wind.

She had died a hero and the most important person in her life would never know.


	2. Five Years Later

**A/N:** I was asked to write a quick look at what it's like **5 years later** in the Tyler's world.

* * *

_Jackie_  
She had gained a husband, a son, and a purpose, but she'd lost the one thing that had kept her going for so long. Ten years in this reality, five years without Rose, and a part of her still waited for the clarion call that would set her world back the way it should be. But the only thing that ever rang was her mobile.

This time she nearly dropped the phone when she glanced at the caller id. The name displayed was one she'd never thought to see again.

"Rose?" She could only hope.

The line was filled with static but even through the noise she recognized his voice. "Jackie, is Rose there?"

The tears that had been building up behind her eyes since long before her phone rang spilled over and she sank to the ground sobbing.

"I'm sorry," whispered the disembodied voice of the Doctor.

* * *

_The Doctor_  
He hadn't found her phone until long after he'd lost her. The TARDIS was accommodating enough that it hadn't been necessary to sort out her room and it hadn't been until after he'd bumped into Jack that he'd been able to bring himself to go through Roses' stuff. Odd, considering he'd never been big on giving her privacy while she'd been on board.

By the time he brought himself to use the phone he had almost convinced himself that he was no longer broken. He never really expected it to work anyway. He wasn't quite sure what to do when he proved himself wrong yet again.

"Rose?" The hope and pain in Jackie's voice was clear even though the line wasn't and somehow he knew before asking.

"Jackie, is Rose there?"

Her collapse was his answer. He, the Doctor, the last of the Time Lords, had run out of time. Part of him wanted to demand answers, to know how and why so he could fix it, but he had given up that right. He had moved on without her, saving his universe at the expense of their lives. There was only one thing left for him to say, "I'm sorry."


	3. One Week Earlier

**A/N:** I was asked to write a quick look at what it's like **1 week before** Mickey visits Bad Wold bay.

* * *

_Rose  
_Rose stares at the blinking countdown and sighs. She should have been home, safely asleep in her lonely bed, or at a Christmas service, or at the mansion helping Pete put out the last of Jonathan's presents. But she hadn't been able to tear herself from the memories, from the possibility, however nebulous, of a way home. And now here she is, stuck in a ship that she hasn't needed to pay much attention to since getting it in the air, with a clock ticking down.

Rose kicks her feet up on the console in front of her and leans back in her chair, wishing she had the fully stocked bar Jack had had. But unlike Jack's close call there is no Doctor coming to rescue her. No miraculously appearing TARDIS. She closes her eyes and imagines he was there with her, the man she had loved in both his forms.

She remembers his first final words, whispering them aloud, "Before I go, I just want to tell you: you were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic!" She pauses to draw in a last breath as the timer ticks down to 2 and like an echo across time and space she hears her second doctor's voice. "And d'you know what? So was I."

_"The End" is just another way of saying "Begin again". _


End file.
